mouths of an immense width;
but their teeth are frequently good; their hair is woolly, though not
completely frizzled. They are a cheerful people, fond of dancing and
music, and obliging to each other. The men almost all read and write
a little, but in every thing else they are very dull and heavy; their
affections are cold and selfish, and a kind of general indifference
to the common incidents of life, mark all their actions. They are
neither prone to sudden anger, nor at all revengeful. In Mourzouk the
men drink a great quantity of _lackbi,_ or a drink called _busa,_
which is prepared from the dates, and is very intoxicating. The men
are good-humoured drunkards, and when friends assemble in the
evening, the ordinary amusement is mere drinking; but sometimes a
_kadanka_ (singing girl) is sent for. The Arabs practise hospitality
generally; but among the Fezzaners that virtue does not exist, they
are, however, very attentive and obsequious to those in whose power
they are, or who can repay them tenfold for their pretended
disinterestedness. Their religion enjoins, that, should a stranger
enter while they are at their meals, he must be invited to partake,
but they generally contrive to evade this injunction by eating with
closed doors. The lower classes are from necessity very industrious,
women as well as men, as they draw water, work in the gardens, drive
the asses, make mats, baskets, &c. in addition to their other
domestic duties. People of the better class, or, more properly, those
who can afford to procure slaves to work for them, are, on the
contrary, very idle and lethargic; they do nothing but lounge or loll
about, inquiring what their neighbours have had for dinner, gossip
about slaves, dates, &c., or boast of some cunning cheat, which they
have practised on a Tibboo or Tuarick, who, though very knowing
fellows, are, comparatively with the Fezzaners, fair in their
dealings. Their moral character is on a par with that of the
Tripolines, though, if any thing, they are rather less insincere.
Falsehood is not considered odious, unless when detected; and when
employed in trading, they affirm that it is allowed by the Koran, for
the good of merchants. However this may be, Captain Lyon asserts,
that he never could find any one able to point out the passage
authorizing these commercial falsehoods.

The lower classes work neatly in leather; they weave a few coarse
barracans, and make iron-work in a solid, though clumsy